In her defense, it wouldn’t have mattered if she caved or not, the vote was 7-3. But yeah, it was really dumb of her to switch her vote based on “I’ll tell you why after the vote”. A fan of the show should not have made a blunder that bad.

She didn’t need Hannah, but that was incredible that she pulled it off. Really weak on Hannah’s part to abandon ship because two people who were aligned with the person she was targeting tried to sway her. OF course they did!

Amazing play by Michelle. I think it was unnecessary because she could have easily reintegrated into the main alliance on that tribe but certainly impressive. I’m excited because I think she has the social and strategic skills to really dominate her alliance and a woman, especially one so young, is rarely seen in that position.

Preseason I was also convinced I wouldn’t like her, simply because of her job as I don’t read the bios. As long as she keeps up this level of game play and keeps the Jesus stuff off screen she could become my favorite player this season. Although beautiful soulful Ken might be tough to beat…

Here’s the thing I just remembered: we got the scene of Hannah and Michelle last week to set up this. Michelle knew that Hannah would be the person to give them the sixth (or seventh?) vote because of their relationship, so she used it. Well done!

IIRC Hannah was reacting to Michelle saying she was a missionary recruiter, not just a missionary. Which granted, “missionary recruiter” is also self-explanatory, but not in the sense of what the job entails precisely.

I have so many questions about that. Props to Michelle for identifying Hannah as a wishy-washy vote changer, but what would have happened if they hadn’t sat next to each other at tribal? Or did Michelle already know they had Michaela and Will’s votes, and just wanted to give Hannah a chance to join?

I am incredibly unhappy about this fact. And I have to finish the show live to stay unspoiled. There is a -500% that I could remain unspoiled if I tried to wait for the books to finish, and I want to at least get there unspoiled on the books OR the show. So, I have now become a show first fan even though I had read every book before seeing the first season (I put off watching it to finish ADWD).

same here for everything. I started reading the books back in 1998 so the fact I will see the “end” on tv first is annoying. And the thing is i like the show a lot, but I love the books and I just wish I could read the end

I haven’t been a fan nearly as long (I started reading the books in high school, which for me means 2006), but it is still maddening that I have to find out the end game via television. Don’t get me wrong, the show is amazing. it’s arguably the best scripted show on the air. But I want the books.

I’m on board with this. I mean, he is about 70. Any “about 70” person could go suddenly with no warning (I guess we all could, but younger people have better odds). Overall there has been no indication other than his age (which he can’t help) that it’s reasonable to think he is short for this world. That clip of him basically saying “fuck off” to people who speculated about his health was well deserved.

Yeah, but he is almost 70 and overweight. This is not making hay where no hay exists (I heard a millennial use that expression).

There’s probably little overlap with this show’s fans, but NCIS showrunner Gary Glasberg just passed away in his sleep last night and he was 50 and apparently in good health. You don’t have to be a senior citizen and in poor health to suddenly drop dead.

NCIS (and New Orleans) will survive without Glasberg, but Martin is the *only* writer of the books. If he dies then that’s it (the publisher will probably get another writer to finish them, but it won’t be what Martin would have done).

This is a thing that’s maybe not obvious to anyone whose not a hardcore fantasy/sf nerd, but George RR Martin has been involved in that community for a long fucking time. He gave Roger Zelazny the title for Lord of Light, and Lord of Light for those of you that aren’t super-nerds is the basis for the fake movie in Argo. Almost everyone he considers a contemporary is dead or dying, and it’s shocking he doesn’t seem to be on the cusp of joining them.

In their defense, there is no longer official source material. I guess GRRM gave them an outline but they have mostly run out of things like real GRRM dialogue to lean on. (mostly agree with your point though)

Season 1 was almost exactly like the books. I’d say 95 percent. Season 2/3 about 80 percent. Season 4 50 percent because the start hitting stuff in book 4/5 and cutting stuff drastically. Season 5 is about 20 percent from book 4/5 and brings about 5 percent of stuff skipped from prior books and the rest is new.

As of right now, we are both liking it. I think South Pacific benefits from a binge watch of it because the non-icky characters really shine like Christine. She hated Cochran in the premiere but now has a major crush on him, which is odd because she also likes Keith. On Upolu, she picked Sophie as a winner with little hesitation (I assumed she would because my friend likes sassy, smart women, nerdy guys, or cat ladies on Survivor).

I binge watched every season between 1-29 because Worlds Apart was my first season. I am much higher on South Pacific than most. It’s not like I love it, it’s still around 20-22, but I don’t think this season has bottom shelf downside like some of the absolute worst seasons.

And I love Sophie. She is one of my favorites and I had her pegged fairly early on. Partly because I had a spoiler that Coach never won. When it became obvious how big of a deal he was, I latched on to Sophie.

I was conflicted on Brandon. Always thought he seemed like a decent dude with *major* problems, as opposed to just being a horrible person. He is a much more interesting character than Uncle Russell to me.

SoPa reference – I want Zeke to tell Michaela/Hannah “YOU DISGUST ME” next week. That would make me happy on so many levels.

Brandon’s problems with women struck me as such a deep level of misogyny that I couldn’t get past it. Then when I saw him return, I concluded that the combination of his uncontrolled temper, and his deep misogyny make him not just troubled, but a truly dangerous person.

I’m probably too optimistic because I try to see good side in people (I teach and it’s difficult for me to switch that off). I’m not convinced decent was the right word to use, but I try to hedge my phrasing a little bit when I’m convinced someone has legit diagnosable issues, which I am with Brandon.

Well, I knew that Survivor fans hated those seasons, but I got hooked on Survivor by the Caramoan pre-merge, so to me even bad Survivor is still pretty great, and I’m possibly PRP’s only Brenda superfan, so even Nicaragua isn’t a total loss. (Note: now that I have more Survivor under my belt, I think Nicaragua, Gabon, and All-Stars are genuinely terrible). It’s just weird to have your first exposure to Russell and Boston Rob be Redemption Island. Same with Coach and South Pacific.

Yeah. Many people have said this but Heroes vs. Villains is probably the best season, but I would not recommend someone new to Survivor watch that season first. They’d miss out on so much by not having seen the original seasons of all of the players.

It’s weird being late to the party. I really enjoyed the online community so I felt like it was a good idea to finish quickly to avoid spoilers. This site was my gateway into Survivor, I googled “spoiler free survivor summaries” one day and ended up here.

I had way too much free time when all I was doing was job searching. So I just watched a crap ton of Survivor. Now I have the job I wanted and I’ve seen every season of Survivor. What more is there in life?

I also binge-watched South Pacific and have much the same take as you. It must have been unbearable watching it in real time, going maybe two months thinking that the worst version of Coach was going to win Survivor.

That’s not as bad as when my old roommate SPOILER FOR YOU THAT I ASSUME YOU KNOW ALREADY ANYWAY turned to me towards the end of Amazon and said, “I hope it’s Jenna and Matt at the end. They deserve it.”

see this is why I actually think its the worst move for Michaela, because what she is on the bottom once they get out the person she is beefing with? She only knows this second hand, whereas she knows Figgy dislikes her!

Do the three that joined the Triforce/fecta (and Michelle) not realize that if they stick with them and vote out Zeke and Adam, then they are at the bottom of that alliance with Michelle and the Triwhatever at the top?

Yes there will probably be a swap, or a tribe mitosis, but they don’t know that for sure. It would serve Hannah, Michaela and Will right if there was no swap and they got voted out after Zeke and Adam are gone (this won’t happen, and I don’t want it to happen, but it would be serendipitous.

I think for Hannah at least the fact that the Mari vote was thrown at her last minute really threw her off her game, and rather than thinking logically about where that decision would put her she was just trying to ensure she stayed in the majority (as seen by her counting numbers on her fingers while voting). It wasn’t a great long-term decision but it was an okay short-term one for her. She’s at least better off than Zeke and Adam

She doesn’t. I’m looking at it from the standpoint that Michelle didn’t have to tell her but made sure Hannah was on the right side of the vote. But Hannah was so conflicted that it opens her up for trouble.

I’m sensing a negative reception, but I thought this was incredibly entertaining, especially tribal council. I’m sad to see Mari go, but who do we think played bad tonight? Michelle did amazing, Michaela’s vote was logical, Hannah made the right call. Just because the less likable group wins out, it doesn’t mean people are playing poorly.

This is why I hate the move for Michaela/Hannah, and probably Will. I don’t see how this is supposed to help them. They already know (or at least think) Jay/Taylor/Figgy are together, and probably Michelle. A block of four can easily do what they want if anyone else votes with them just once. Hannah has already shown she can flip, and Michaela has mortally offended the other side.

I mean it was really solid play by the pretty people, but I think it was equally poor by the “flippers”. All this does is put them 5th, at best.

I mean if your goal is to get “near-ish” to the end it could work, I don’t think Michaela can keep her emotions in check long enough to be in this alliance long term, though.

Is Rick in the top four of all CGI characters? I know CGI Brett is a thing. CGI Rick has to be a thing too. If those are both in the top four who else is in the Mount Rushmore of invisible characters? Purple Kelly and…?

Perhaps she thinks she’d rather play with dopey people like the bros and Figgy. Maybe she thinks she can manipulate them more easily. She might’ve felt that Mari, Zeke, and Hannah are bigger threats because they have brains.

If so, then what she may not realize is that there *is* a brain in that seemingly idiotic Triforce alliance: Michelle. So this still seems like a bad choice, but maybe Zeke and Mari and Hannah also seemed uncrackable to an outsider like Michaela. It’s hard to be sure because we barely saw anything of how the Freaks & Geeks Alliance was operating or what they were like. And now they’re already gravely wounded. (Sob.)

“Perhaps she thinks she’d rather play with dopey people like the bros and Figgy. Maybe she thinks she can manipulate them more easily. She might’ve felt that Mari, Zeke, and Hannah are bigger threats because they have brains.”

I don’t know that Michaels is really operating on that kind of strategic level at all. I think she believer her own alliance was going to target her next, which made them the people she was most recently annoyed with, therefore her target.

You’re probably right, but as others here have wondered, what on Earth made Michaela believe that? It sounded like a blatant lie for the sake of manipulating Michaela (even though it was actually the truth based on what little we saw, but for all we know that might’ve just been Zeke humoring Jay because he knows he doesn’t like her, not Zeke actually being serious). I was looking for a deeper reason for Michaela to fall for this, but we probably just didn’t see enough of what was going on out there. The machinations and weird thought processes of some of these players might have just been too complicated to fit into 42 minutes. I wish they could do more early episodes, not just the premiere, of each season in 90-minute timeslots so we could get to know the players better, but then the disgusting, vile, reprehensible Criminal Minds would have to move elsewhere and CBS can’t have that!

I find that people that pride themselves on always telling it like it is often have the least ability to actually see it like it is.

I’d love to have 90 minute episodes. Maybe just cut Criminal Minds down to half an hour. I suspect many of the viewers just tune in for the pseudo-snuff/ torture scenes. You could fit those into half an hour and everybody wins.

Speaking of Criminal Minds (which I never thought I would say on this site) I loved Gibson’s recent explanation for his getting fired, where he said the writer walked into where his leg was swinging. “I didn’t punch him, he hit my fist with his face!”

I don’t know. I thought it was pretty interesting that she could be so anti-Figgy during the Tribal Council, but still vote out Mari. That could be seen as superbly playing both sides so that neither knows which way you actually voted, unlike Hannah, whom everyone will know switched sides.

While I love her comments (she’s a bit like Cydni), her abrasiveness to some others might not bode well if she gets to the end. Telling someone like it is (in your opinion) may not transfer to jury votes. I can’t think of a winner that did that … except maybe Sandra … and she knew how far she could go and knew when to reign it in or be diplomatic. I’m not sure many people like that made it to the top 3.

Yeah, I really liked this episode a lot. I am more inclined to side with nerds, but this was some interesting game play. And while I wouldn’t say I dislike Mari, I hadn’t really warmed up to her in any way.

Oh I enjoyed it as a bit of TV but I felt the decision making was pretty damn illogical. Michaela joined a group where she knows they dislike because she worries her current group might target her next (info which came from the people aligned with the person she wants out!) Will is suddenly not interested in breaking up the power couple? Hannah just believes “because I say so” nah none of that was logical

But that info was right, Zeke did mention targeting Michaela her next. It was lose lose. Props to her for being able to work with people she openly dislikes. I don’t know how that will work out for her in the long run, but it’s definitely worked for some players. Michelle is shown to be one of Hannah’s closest allies and she voted with her so she didn’t end up on the outs like Adam and Zeke. I don’t know why Will ended up with the Figgy and co but we don’t really know how the dynamics are working out there.

That was not smart on Zeke’s part, especially since jay was in that conversation and he obviously was in a group with Taylor and Figgy. Don’t give out more info than you have to and discussing who to target next is more than you have to.

Yeah, Michelle deserves all of the credit, but Zeke deserves most (if not all) of the blame. If Zeke doesn’t tell Jay that they’re planning to vote for Figgy, then Figgy likely gets voted out and Mari is safe. There was no reason for Zeke to tell Jay the plan except probably Zeke wanted to stay on good terms with Jay.

Yes, but I was actually referring to going the step further and putting the next target on Michaela. If he only said the first part, yes, Jay would have known about Figgy and would have been able to tell her but he would not have been able to truthfully say Michaela was next under Zeke’s plan. While he could have actually just made it up, it might not have been as convincing as the truth.

Hannah’s move was terrible. She was caught in a bad spot but she should have just shut down that convo in tribal fast or flipped without taking so much time.
Michaela seemingly is not part of any group yet.. Zeke said as much that either voting out Figgy wll bring her in or they will vote her out next. So even thought she joined a side with a person she hates, she is not actually on bottom anymore. Any one of Zeke, Adam and Hannah seems like the next target for majority now. Hannah probably not, if Michele wants her to tag along.

Hannah should have said “No, you have to give me a reason. I’m not changing my vote because you say ‘I’ll tell you later’.” It wouldn’t have mattered, Mari would have still been voted out, but that was a bad move for Hannah and she came off as a player that can be easily manipulated into making dumb decisions.

That’s exactly why I really think there’s something we weren’t shown. I’m under the impression that Hannah had decided to vote with Michelle before tribal, but may not have been expecting that they’d go for Mari. I realize that there’s nothing in the episode to back this up, and it doesn’t really explain her (seemingly) endless vote, but she really doesn’t seem like someone who would change her vote for no reason.

Michaela was the worst player of the night. She has a complete meltdown with Figgy, completely alienating her. Then Figgy comes along and tells her that her allies are planning to vote her out next. She buys this lie from someone who has no reason to wish her well.

Hannah certainly screwed up badly this week, but Michaela basically showed that she is completely incapable of playing the social game of Survivor at all. Her only hope is to ride to #2 as a goat.

Why why why why in season 33 of this show can player A tell player B “Hey, Player C is planning to vote you out next” and player B will instantly believe it without getting any confirmation?

I know, editing, maybe Michaela did talk to Zeke or others. But it really looked like she was told “Zeke wants to vote you out” and she thought “Oh, these people who I am not aligned with are telling me the truth, I believe them completely.”

It’s possible that they cut Michaela talking to Zeke, but that confrontation would have been reality TV gold, so they would have tried hard to work it in. There is no way that Micheala could have been subtle about it either.

On top of that, if Michaela had confronted her alliance, Hannah and Mari would have had warning of what was coming.

That’s possible, but I would think/hope that Zeke would be a good enough liar to tell her “No Michaela, I did not say that you be voted out next, they are lying to you” and she would believe it. At least believe him more than believe Michelle/Jay.

It’s only been two episodes but I don’t see anything that shows Zeke is not a good liar. Without any proof showing otherwise, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Hey, he was probably lying to the rest of the tribe for most of the first episode when he felt so out of place but didn’t want them to notice.

I didn’t enjoy Tribal Council, but mostly because everyone still seemed to be so happy to be on the show – the kind of enthusiasm you see the first episode when they arrive on the beach – and that really bugs me. I usually hate first episodes for that reason, but usually people are beaten down a bit before going to tribal.

I don’t know if I’m just a Scrooge that wants everyone to be as miserable as I am inside, or if it just irritates me because I know if I were on a competitive show, I would be too busy being steeped in extreme paranoia and layered inferiority complexes to ever once kick back and enjoy myself. Anyway, fuck them. I really hope the grins and giggles are gone by next tribal council.

Oh I’m sure my hatred for the “happy to be here” phase has everything to do with my own issues of inadequacy.

I’m sure the first tribal council – talking to Jeff, getting to write a vote on that thick looking paper, the torches, etc – is justifiably exciting for anyone, let alone a bunch of assholes who grew up watching the show.

I think Will’s hoodie is from Old Navy. I have that exact hoodie if so.

I love a good chaotic tribal council. It can always elevate an episode. Not that this episode lacked for some good moments, from Ken being dreamy (and nice!) to Michelle’s “there’s no way this should have worked but they bought the dragon thing so they’ll probably buy this” plan to get Figgy off the hot seat.

The only thing dumber than believing in dragons is believing, “I have super secret reasons that I can’t tell you right now, but I promise they’re real and I’m not manipulating you.” I hate Michelle so much.

Was that some kind of Jedi mind trick or what? Is Michelle the second coming of Kim from One World? Or, more likely, are Hannah and Michelle closer friends than we’ve been shown? Maybe Michelle pulled this off because… IDK… maybe she was subtle with her string-pulling and manipulation whereas Mari was (I guess?) more open about it (maybe?). Not that we’ve seen enough to make definitive conclusions. (I’m getting too used to the LONG-arse Australian Survivor episodes where you REALLY get to know all the players …which is great when they’re interesting but terrible when they get boring and start harping about honesty and integrity as if it’s still season 5. Now American Survivor seems really really rushed to me.)

1. I was 100% wrong about Michelle not being with the tricycle.
2. The success of that awful group of people makes my opposite strategy in fantasy start looking really good. I just have to come to terms with the fact that all the people I hate have a good chance in this game.
3. I’m warming up to Ken. As far as obnoxious hippies go, he’s not so bad. This means I’ll completely be in the tank for him by merge time.

This is what we know about Gen X: Paul is a loud guy that had heatstroke. David is super nervous. Ken is super hunky. Cece is in the minority alliance (phrasing). Chris and Bret are interchangeably in charge. Sunday talks occasionally. Lucy never talks

I’m almost to the point of giving up on football. Kentucky looked to be gaining momentum only to become a mess again, and the Redskins are in a similar boat. It’s really not fun to follow any more and I have other things to pass the time.

This is o/t but it reminded me of something I meant to bring up on the post for the last podcast: When my family was in Banff a few years ago, my dad, who has a Minnesota/Illinois accent, got asked he was a local, so it’s not as distinct from a Canadian accent as you might think.

Yeah, you sound nothing like my dad, who weirdly, I have heard talk on a podcast, which is when it really hit me how midwestern he sounds. Just saying that upper-midwest accent maybe blends into the middle provinces accents more than you think it does.

Citizen Kane, Casablanca, Godfather Part II, Chinatown, The General, The Third Man, The Three Colors Trilogy, Mulholland Drive, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, one Hitchcock (to avoid crowding out the list, let’s say Rear Window although it could be several others), one Kurosawa (same reason, Seven Samurai), one Pixar (same, WALL-E), one Miyazaki (same, Spirited Away), Singin in the Rain, Grand Illusion, Some Like It Hot, La Jetee, Goodfellas, Shane

I did that too, my list is basically my favorite in a bunch of categories. Scorsese, Kurosawa, Comedy, Musical, Allen, Children’s, 70s, Foreign, Classic, and Wings of Desire most represents my own beliefs.
I really love your list and many of those films are on my Top 100. When you’ve seen as many as I have, even a top 100 is hard to narrow down.

Yeah, although the problem with that cheat (picking one from a particular director) is choosing between watchability or achievement. I would be up for a triple feature of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Chungking Express, and Raising Arizona any day of the week, while a triple feature of Schindler’s List, In the Mood for Love, and No Country for Old Men sounds awful.

Wings of Desire was right on the bubble. Based on what I had a hard time leaving out my 21-25 is that, City of God, 2001, Empire Strikes Back, and the 7-Up series.

We clearly have very similar taste, and I’m reminded that having not seen City of God and the 7up series is a blight on my status as a film fanatic.
Btw, I totally took that into consideration because these are favorites, not Best. I think there really is a huge distinction. For instance, I think Citizen Kane is probably the greatest film achievement, and yet it is not in my top 10.

The 7-Up series isn’t as formidable as you might think, since they increasingly use footage from the previous installments, and you can skip ahead if it’s all fresh in your memory (and you’re not a purist). I’ve seen the past three as they’ve come out, and that’s also an incredible experience, as you yourself are advancing through life at the same rate they are. It’s definitely mandatory viewing for any movie fan.

Children of Paradise and Beauty and the Beast weren’t even on my (hopelessly long) to-see list. Thanks!

Yes. But I have not seen it. There’s also one that was cowritten/directed by Cesternino for a reality series. I did watch the series. I can’t remember if I watched the movie but the movie did have a lot of reality “stars” in it.

You know, I keep being like, how can Ken NOT be in the main alliance? He’s so handsome and perfect and how does everyone not instantly fall in love with him, obviously? But like… that’s probably why you shouldn’t have him in your alliance, right? Nobody on earth could ever possibly beat this guy.

Well, it was nice leading the Outcast League for a week anyway… what did the seven people who passed on Mari before it was my turn know that I, the other Outcast league, the Champions league, and half the pick-4 players didn’t?

When David ran off into the woods with the coconut I was yelling “why” at him. All he had to do was walk around with the mark facing his palm. Nobody would be suspicious if they saw him with a coconut.

In Lucy’s pre-game interviews (I thiiink with Josh Wigler) she talks about wanting to be the last Asian standing, so now that she’s achieved her goal maybe she can stop hiding in the background and become an actual player!

So Figgy was targeted for an actual legitimate reason (though of course its the woman targeted not the guy), and Mari was the leader of the other faction. I dont think either of them were just the outsider that for some weird reason didnt fit in

My thought was – Mari was clearly a player to watch (we noticed too, that’s why she was consensus top pick in our fantasy leagues) and was leading a coalition to vote out Figgy. Figgy’s alliance found out, viewed Mari how we did, and took out an aggressor/obvious threat.

The Woo boot is one of my favorite episodes of the season. If that episode had been the tone throughout the remainder of Cambodia, it would rival HvV for me. You have an extremely emotional evacuation, a fun swap, two great and fun challenges that highlight characters, one of the most devastating confessionals I have ever seen on the show, and of course the chaos that surrounded the Woo boot. I know everyone loves the Savage boot (I do), but I think the Woo boot may be the stronger episode and (controversially) the strongest episode of the season. In hindsight, I forgot how boring the Savage boot was until the reward/Debbie Downer, whereas the Woo boot has no lulls.

Glad someone brought this up, and I think the optics of this familiar situation might be informing next week’s potential shakeup. So by my count there were 5 poc (all wocs, no mocs…wtf?) at the beginning of the season, and they account for both boots, both second-most votes, and one clearly on the outs w/her tribe. It’s almost as if the generational labels dreamed up by white people eager to differentiate themselves from themselves is providing cover for the exercise of a far older, less self-consciously concocted story of differences.

I also want to say that I think Zeke blew it here. Why even talk about taking out a member of your majority voting block at this point? If you want to throw Jay a bone, keep it vague. Say something like, “Obviously Michelle and Taylor are next, but if you vote with us, I’ll do my best to bring you into the core of our alliance.” Throwing specific names out is dumb.

Yeah, all of the blame has to go to Zeke. If he doesn’t tell Jay that they’re voting for Figs then she likely gets voted out. He likely told Jay because he wanted to keep a good social relationship with him, but in doing so, he just ruined his standing on the tribe.

So I have my theory for Lucy: she’s about three or four seconds out of sync in time and space from the rest of the tribe. Around episode 10 or 11, the Langoliers will catch up to her and eat her, and the remaining tribe members will all look up as one, as if they all heard…something. And then they’ll shrug and go about their day.

I’m a Generation Joneser, and in *my* day we had to reserve our Stephen King books at the library and wait for 17 other shmucks to finish reading the single available copy first. After walking barefoot through the snow for two miles and eating gravel for breakfast!

The invisible edit combined with the god-awful publicity photo they chose for her has me convinced that she did or said something to piss off production.

Of course the more reasonable explanation is that it’s the beginning of the season and there are a million more exiting things happening and there are always people that get left behind in the edit at this stage.

I love wacky people-knocked-out-of-time stories like that. Reminds me of an episode of the 80s Twilight Zone where a couple wake up one morning and they find themselves in a world populated only by faceless men completely covered in blue body suits who are manufacturing the world. Apparently, time is a series of minutes, and we move from one to the next like going from one train car to the next, and the couple somehow became unstuck in time and found themselves in one of these “minutes”.

Also, the whole idea of what the Langoliers look like is both silly and scary. Everytime I’m at an airport I listen for that crunching sound.

Yes, if the pre-season or first episode comparisons of her to Aubry weren’t enough, it was really evident this episode.

So now I guess we will see Hannah improve drastically and take control of the game, only to be defeated in the finals by a cute girl who didn’t make the guys mad and won a few challenges. Michelle seems to smart (based on her gameplay this episode) for this scenario, so it would have to be Figgy.

Now, “ten minutes” in conversation generally doesn’t ACTUALLY mean ten minutes, but rather a guess of how LONG something felt. Especially because they have no clocks or anything. So it might not have been actually ten minutes, but it sure was a long damn time.

Jeff did say on EW.com that this was the longest that any player has taken in the booth.

And if you’re in an alliance with someone and they take that long to make a decision in the booth, how are you supposed to trust them with any information in the game?

It’s like Brandon in South Pacific (thanks @disqus_GpYJ355BVM:disqus for making me think of this season) telling the truth about everything at tribal. His alliance soon realized they couldn’t tell him anything because he would not lie at tribal and say everything he knew.

I’m doubting a 2nd chances swap at 18. So, if I’m thinking of a more normal swap, (which is 14? 12?, something like that), I’d say it’s not good for the people on the outside of Gen X. I think the Millennials are a little less cohesive, and that there will still be some shuffling over there.

A swap now would dilute the theme of millennials vs generation X a bit, as there would be a few on each tribe that would love to flip to the other group. So splitting to three tribes with one being millennials, one being generation X, and the third being an equal mix would keep the theme strong, and would be very interesting.

I’m really hoping that Taylor and Figs get split up from a swap/tribe split, if only so we’ll get lots of confessionals about how they each miss each other so much even though they’ve only been together for 6 days.

I noticed that the show started with day 5, and I remember seeing “day 6”, but I don’t remember seeing “day 7”, but I think you’re right, there were 3 days on this episode (right?) so that would make this vote on “night 7”.

I do think it will be a swap, and possibly even the 3 tribe twist from Cambodia since they’d be doing it at 18. Based a little bit on what we know about the players already, and a little bit on generational stereotypes, I think there’s a solid chance that the GenX-ers will stick together, pick up a few straggler Millennials (Michaela? Zeke? Etc.) and run the post-swap game.

During Paul’s fake heart attack I was worried that Probst was finally beginning to show his age. It seemed that after the killing fields of Kaoh Rong the constant medical situations were beginning to get to him.

Then I looked it up and realized he’s actually two years older than Paul. So nevermind, the man is a vampire.

Hannah and Michelle had to have been much closer than we’ve been led to believe, even including secret scenes. Either that or Hannah is a maroon for switching her vote at TC based on “Hey, switch your vote. I’ll tell you why later”. (I still don’t like the move for Hannah, but this would give at least some perspective on why she agreed to flip her vote)

This was a complicated episode for me, Fantasy Wise. I have Figgy in my Champion League team but wanted her to lose. I was not stunned by the end of the episode, I thought it was Mari going into Tribal. Figgy going home seemed too obvious. I am just glad I swapped Mari for ADAM last week (he has kept up his yelling habit). Hopefully he and my precious Zeke will rebound.

Well, there goes my fantasy team. I think I actually have all the flippers on my team plus the person that got voted out. So, yeah. I said I would fail spectacularly and so far this season is proving me right.

To Michelle, the All-Powerful Sorceress: Baby, you are so talented, and they are so dumb. Dragons might actually exist, now that you’ve shown that you have magical powers.

Getting a bit creative with hiding an idol in a coconut. And of course, David, He Who Fears All, is the one who finds it.

Jeez, what’s left to say about Ken, The Fairest of Them All? Doing well in challenges, no one saying anything bad about him. Seriously, when Paul talks about the people at the bottom, he says David and Cece, but not Ken, who didn’t seem like he was really part of the main alliance (though he voted with them last time). He’s either the new Joe Anglim, or he’s winning this thing.

A twist cometh! If you know what that twist is (as I did when I wandered onto the Survivor Wiki page for this season), it’ll be very interesting to see how it turns out. Of course with a prime number of people left in the game, I don’t know how that’s going to work, seeing as Takali has only 8 people and Vanua has 9.

I might as well throw in the towel on fantasy too. I think in future seasons, I’m going to pick the players who I have the luke-warmest reaction to in the meet the cast videos. The past two seasons, my picks turned out to be duds but it only showed after the second or third episode

I have published some tired, half-assed thoughts this week at https://robertsreviewsandmusings.wordpress.com/. Next week will be a full review, but this week has not been great for me and I don’t have a full review in me. I may update it later.

Wow, what an improvement in quality from the first episode! Lots of fun, interesting activity tonight. Love the Ken-David bromance, that twosome has a lot of delightfulness potential in future episodes, especially with an idol in their pocket. Had Michelle pegged as player last week and she didn’t disappoint. I think she’s making a classic mistake by spending too much social capital to keep a goat/inert vote around and it will hurt her in the long run by making herself too visible a target. Then again as a woman maybe she has more wiggle room in that area since men are usually primed to underestimate a woman, especially if she’s attractive. Either way bravo for some extremely adroit tactics in this episode, springing the vote change on Hannah last second was probably the only way she gets that vote. I’m doing a total 180 on this season survivor, don’t make me do a 360!

Absolutely! I’m very excited to see her character develop and I hope she can stick around for awhile. It was a risky move on her part but if she didn’t burn too many bridges and doesn’t get a bad swap situation I think she has the skills to really dominate her alliance.

Figs was oblivious that anyone would notice her macking with Taylor. Even when called out, she continued to isolate herself from the group by going off with Taylor. She was legitimately surprised that she would be the target.

Figs does not seem to be dangerous at all, unless the goal is to be the most oblivious player.

I’m not sold on Michelle yet, but this was a baller move. She decided which side she was on, and then convinced two people who had nothing to gain to join her. Her manipulation of Hannah was masterful. I mean, it could only work on a profoundly naive player, but her target was chosen well.

Agreed, I’m already hitching up the horses. I realize two episodes is a very small sample size but she seems to have really impressive social intuition, especially for someone so young. Nobody on the other side seemed to catch a whiff of her plan. She corralled the people she could before tribal and (I think correctly) assumed that Hannah would resist if she broached the subject at camp and would cave if pushed at tribal. I don’t think she’ll end up winning because I think she’s playing too brash too early and eventually people realize what a threat she is, but assuming she isn’t swapped into a bad situation I think she makes the merge and is a lock to return within a few seasons.

And Fabio was smarter than he let on. I’m not saying he was supersmart, just not an absolute idiot. I do not get that impression from Taylor. I get the impression that Jay is smarter than he lets on at times.

I sort of guessed that it was going to be a Mari blindside when her over confident confessional popped up after the challenge loss. Figgy being set up as an easy boot in few minutes of strategy pretty much confirmed it.
– Props to Michele. Very strong play there. Even Jay looked like ready to accept and go with the flow. But she really stepped up save her alliance.
– I don’t think there was ever a proper ‘misfit’ alliance against the tri-force. As it goes, you don’t know where the localities till you actually cast a vote. I think Michele just told all 3 of Michaela, Will and Hannah, at different times, that she had the numbers to vote out Mari and just asked them to join the wagon. I think she smartly, waited till the tribal to corner Hannah, perhaps she never planned to and only the seating arrangement gave her any opportunity, but kudos to her for taking that up. Because if she tells Hannah before hand, she is actually likely to share that back with Mari and try to stop Will/Michaela from going in a different direction.
– Gen X tribe is still meh for me. David+Ken alliance seems interesting. New Stephen and JT perhaps.
– I hate that Adam and Zeke are in danger now. Don’t want either of them to go soon.
– This was also the coming out party for Michaela. Looks like she could be a source of a lot of drama this season

I think telling people you have the numbers when you really don’t is only good when it works (like most plans). If Michaela and Will just went to confirm with anyone else, it could have blown up in Michele’s face. That said, this might be the move that carries Jay and Michele to the end.

Also, I always wondered if production tells them where to sit at tribal or if they just grab a seat. Because not only the fact that Hannah kept insisting that she trusts Michele but that she was completely isolated from the rest of the “misfit” alliance was illuminating to me. I think the millennial tribe never established clear alliances (in as much as you wouldn’t telegraph your alliances) and assumed that everything was more loose. Then, despite being only an alliance of four, Figgy, Taylor, Jay, and Michelle have the advantage of just attaching two free agents rather than flipping two set alliance members. So I wonder if there’s a reason the tribe made up for that or if it was just poor alliance-building by Mari, Adam, and Zeke

But that’s true for every survivor move, it is good as long as it works. Very few failed moves get any credit. Despite tribal positioning, I can’t help but be impressed by Michele’s bravado at flipping someone’s vote at tribal council. How often has that happened on Survivor?
The latter point is crucial. Survivor community was making fun of triforce last week but survivor history has shown that even a smaller but much tighter group of people is more likely to get over a larger but looser group.

I also wanted to point that while everyone was comparing the trifecta with Caramoan 4, I pointed that it could be similar to Micronesia too where the 2 couplings actually came out on top in the tribe with Cirie being the decisive vote.

And almost the same thing happens here. Michaela like Cirie is not too happy with the couple but she stills join up with the couple’s alliance.

Thank goodness for this website because before I read the comments for this episode I had completely forgotten there was a player named Lucy. And since I still have no frame of reference for who she is or what she looks like, my mind is going to go to the song Lucy by See Spot Run. So I hope when we finally see her on the show (either the episode where she quits or gets voted out) I’ll see that she in fact does dance the watusi, with her hands on her knees and her top done up loosely.

Before I read any of the comments to find out, I have no idea why the fuck they voted for Mari. Granted, I was Instagramming most of the episode, but it seemed like they completely left out why two very important voters flip-flopped and listened to the dumbest people on their tribe. If I was Zeke, I’d be furious too! You freaking dummies deserve to lose now.

I completely agree that Will, Michaela, and Hannah all made terrible decisions, however, other than getting voted out the very worst thing that can happen to you in the early going is to be on the wrong side of the vote. A loose six versus a tight four is a classic Prisoner’s Dilemma. As a group, Freaks and Geeks obviously would all have been been better off sticking with the plan, but as an individual, if you suspect someone is flipping, you damn well better flip too. Someone should have been locking down the vote, but there again there’s no upside as an individual player to doing that.

I finally watched this episode. (Thanks midterms!) Kind of like Kaoh Rong’s second episode, I was really underwhelmed until tribal council. Even if there wasn’t a whole lot of strategic maneuvering going on (at least on screen), tribal was pretty fun and entertaining, and I’m warming up to the Millennials a lot more than I thought I would. The vote was pretty surprising, but it was definitely better set-up than some other #blindsides (Zeke telling Jay to vote for Mari definitely set the whole thing in motion), and made a lot more sense than some of last week’s random votes. Overall, pretty decent episode, but I’m still skeptical on exactly where this season is going.

I honestly felt more annoyed by millenials twenty years ago when they were called gen xers and when I was one of them. Back then I truly believed 90% of the people my age were fucking stupid. Now I just see them as young, a bit dim and unpolished, trying to soak up as much of their youth as they can while not even realizing it will not last, not even for them.

But seriously, I don’t know how many more times I can hear “millenial” and “gen x” and did you know we grew up watching television and playing video games….

Michaela may be a disaster of a player with her antagonising of everyone, but she does give some pretty great quotes.
I particularly liked “In the middle of the night I hear a kiss sound. And I was like ‘Y’all can’t be for real.’ You stink. Your mouth is nasty. You got sand in your drawers. And you’re kissing somebody. That’s just disgusting.”
and also: “This girl is dumb. You’re supposed to blend in a little at the beginning and work your magic behind the scenes, but her magic is all over the place, so it’s not magic. You need to pull the bunny out of the hat, you can’t just walk in with the bunny.”

She is great with the quotes and facial expressions, but she needs to keep that stuff for the confessionals and her alliance. There was no need for her to say it directly to Figs. Just tell your own alliance and you can all laugh at her and Taylor.